University of Bristol - Selective hearing

Researchers have developed a mathematical model that helps to explain some of the remarkable ways in which mosquitoes hear. The insects have multiple sensory units called scolopidia and are able to amplify the faintest of sounds, such as the beating of a female's wings, yet are not deafened by loud noises. Staff at the University of Bristol's Centre for Applied Nonlinear Mathematics devised the model following studies of the Tanzanian species Toxorhynchites brevipalpis. The findings are published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.